A rollercoaster of emotions for this title, this is by far the most extensive and testament to the player’s adaptability. The back of the case tells you all you need to know. Fuck the politics and narrative, just do Raven stuff. Exactly that is done!

Right off the bat, you’re given an AC and 100k, this is excellent as there’s way more leeway on what to do build wise, like using moderate cost shell weapons if you’d like.

At the beginning, there’s very few missions you can do and very simple ones at that. The further it goes, more areas open up, newer parts, old areas finished earlier now have quests to do and so on. Some areas fully focused on being water battles, outside battles, or exploring deep ruins. I love this as there’s a real encouragement to change your AC for the missions and areas. Some missions you outright can’t beat due to your boosters being too weak is like tank legs can’t be used. Near the end of the game, I had so many leg parts just in the garage and not even sold in case I had to switch. The menu mania stays, but the gameplay here is PACKED.

There’s great amount of fan service in this title as well, most popular being the post game content and experience a true struggle on the final mission. I would go as far to say it’s the hardest boss battle I’ve ever experienced in gaming yet, so many times I had to go back to drawing board and think about what I can optimize. I find the entire process fun, even if frustrating, if I’m getting my cheeks beat. I tried out melee, light, heavy, quad, full rocket builds, you name it, I probably tried it out nearly every build imaginable and it’s all thanks to this game.

If you love the fundamentals of Armored Core and want that normal Raven experience, this game is for you for sure.

The 1st Armored Core title on the ps2, is a very early installment ps2 as well so keep this in mind for this review. Let’s start off with the setting of the game, Mars, a big red rock planet with heavy weather. This leads to many of the missions and areas in the game being indoors, meaning many areas are laboratories or factories. While it can feel like a bummer to some people as the many open areas are found in the ps1 games. Here it checks out since the missions that DO have you outside, the weather is often rough like being at Mar’s poles, having to search and operate in a snowstorm. I find the areas overall good and fit with the setting, while there’s nothing to write home about for a gen 6 game.

Now let’s talk about the feature everyone loves dearly, the arena! I would sink in hours on end in the arena, going from rank 50 to 1 nearly all at the beginning of the game as there were no restrictions from stopping me. I feel rather conflicted about this game’s arena. On one hand, with the arena areas to choose from, I found myself swapping between them more often than I did with any AC title I’ve played as each has its own pros and cons. I love going to Falna Craters to give a large, almost flat arena to battle a fellow AC for example.

Now on the other hand… the AI in this game is dumb, I mean REALLY dumb. While yes, the difficulty curve for the arena is excellent in its own right. The AI placed in the areas given just doesn’t mix well. As you may know, areas are limited and if you leave the area borders, you fail. This same logic applies to the enemies, so you can beat ALL of the arenas by not shooting a single thing at an opponent. Can totally cheese by ringing out the opponents. The easiest to do this is by playing Abandon Highway. I say to give this a try as it’s hilarious, but the idea of being able to ring out even rank 1 AC by doing this is mind-boggling. This applies to the missions too, I personally have gotten an enemy AC trapped on my head in a corner and we’ll have an awkward moment together. While this is a clear flaw in game design, it being a solo experience makes the flaw not as bad if this problem existed in modern gaming.

Gameplay? It’s literally the same as the ps1 games but with better graphics. Don’t fix what isn’t broken I guess.

Music! The music in this title is good, full techno vibe for this title and great remakes of the 1’s ost. My favorite menu/garage theme without a doubt!

The story in this title is great and far better told than the previous entries. This time, the antagonists feel like a genuine threat and like you’re the only hope for the people on Mars, that feeling of being at a disadvantage the whole way through. Each mission has actual relevance to the story, unlike past and later titles where the plot only happens near the last half. Pleasant story and worth checking out for it alone.

Overall, this being my 1st AC game I tried it out years ago and gave up on it as it was too hard. Now back with 4 AC games under my belt and knowledge now going back into this game. This game is really really fun and what more can you ask from a video game?

I was shilled this game and frankly I thought this game wasn’t gonna be good. I’m not all that crazy about rogue likes and I’m a story game enjoyer at my heart. After beating the game on the normal difficulty and many runs with the game, with others and on my own. My opinion on the rogue like genre has uplifted and should explore the genre more!

In terms of gameplay, in depth decision making and open ended characters, it’s outstanding! Some runs can go on for 2 hours and never felt it by having so much fun blasting stuff and having ridiculous amount of fun with my friend(s) in them.

My main issue is I’ve found the hosting to be terrible and only worse if there’s large geological gap between those you want to play with, repeated sessions ending by not dying, but someone getting randomly disconnected. Total mood breaker!

I don’t really have much to say, but I didn’t want to end the review with a negative segment. Let’s get a little personal here. I deeply enjoyed every run, I felt the bonds of the people I’ve played it with become stronger and makes the time goes by. It brings me back to my younger years of being that Call of Duty kid, playing for hours upon hours, kept pushing on and had fun. Maybe these types of games I’ve forgotten all along down the road? Forgotten the other importance of gaming that it can be pure escapism and unite people together? It’s some food for thought…

Ror2 may not be the best experience at times multiplayer wise and it takes simply time to find a character(s) to enjoy. It’s a game that has help me grow as a person and deserving to be in my special spot of 9/10 titles.

Booted up the game and presented a cutscene and opening segment to set the tone for the entire game. Mystery, a feeling of the golden age has passed and the future is unknown. A tale that far exceeds you and do not deserve to see the full picture.

I was having a lot of fun for the 1st half, had a mystery building while having a good side plot happening at the same time between the protag and the knight meeting at the beginning. I like the potency mechanic, the enemies are unique and found myself overwhelmed when fighting a group of enemies. When I saw the stats and get to choose where my points go into, I was excited as I’m a megaten fan, I love things like this as it gives the game replayability.
What carried this game the most has to be the map design, each area is memorable in the way you have to navigate and keep notes to come back to certain segments. The transition of area to area felt natural and rewarding to opening gates, the puzzles, and secret areas light my inner light bulb nearly each time.

Then at the 2nd half, the budget of the game really started to show as like the “newer” enemies are reskins with no new added mechanics to them except maybe a status element change. I learnt that building your stats mean nothing and are forced to conform, by putting your stats all-rounder as it’s needed to meet a certain threshold to equip this armor, weapon and so on. Then it’s easy found out that magic found is far and few except the upgrades in the shop of course. The spells/skills are found or gotten are underwhelming to say the least. The skills that are in the game are so basic the enjoyment to come out of them drains quickly. However, I did find a lot of enjoyment putting status elements onto the blade! Bonking monsters on the head with an electric blade feels great every time when you hit them from the back and the sfx comes along with it.

I feel the skill mechantics could be more fun if there was more to play around with and yes, I would go out and grind a weapon’s potency for skills or bonk enemies for drops, I still feel a content drought in the skill mechanization. The same goes for the guardians, they don’t add enough to the table. Enough to switch some around like what your intent is. Trying to grind a weapon’s potency? Add the guardian to help the grind. Going into a boss fight? Maybe should add tue guardian that gives you more skill points so you can use more spells. However, the guardians impact wasn’t enough to make builds around the guardians.

Skeleton keys mean little to nothing, the price for them is so low and finding bones to sell is incredibly easy to find as you can just cut grass to get them. It feels like there’s 0 purpose for them to be here as it just became something to drop some coins into that makes little impact in gameplay except extending the game’s time by 30 minutes if that.

With all that I listened above, it felt like a slug to get through and the game was over layered to look bigger than it really wanted to be. The game felt bloated and so I am wasting my time continuing. I made it to the final dungeon and it’s been 2 months since I touched the game, I have no plans to go back either.

I feel disappointed than frustration, there’s a lot to the game I enjoyed and mechanics I feel can be excellent, but they fall flat to implement it and make the experience feel fresh throughout. When for once I thought falcom was gonna get a W, it choked ;(

This title didn’t hook me as much to Phantasma or the original to be frank.

I’ve come to appreciate the mission section of AC more as this title has like 5 total necessary missions to be done. I’ve had little to no difficulty for this title too, while it maybe due to better skill now, but I saw me never having to do any of the missions as money and management to it was NEVER an issue. Unlike AC 1 especially, where I was cutting it close throughout the entire game.

Oh the story, it has mystery, a clear antagonist, protag show some personality, and mystery. While the characters aren’t as well done to Phantasma, this title is ever so satisfying if you’ve played AC1 as it answers the biggest question I had the end of the game and interconnects with AC1’s story! Great tone of storytelling and hope they keep this going for AC2.

While this is a flaw to the mission sections, how the arena is done here is good, but not great. I much prefer how AC 3 handles arenas (only future tiles I’ve beaten and to make want to play the previous titles and future ones.). What is done here is better to enjoyment to Phantasma, but not by a large margin. Well done, this title is a solid middle ground for the ps1 era for me.

Overall, I had a fun time and beginner friendly I would say by how many resources are to your deposal.